EDITORIAL: Hell of a way to run a railroad | Auckland Opinion | Local Voices from Auckland, New Zealand

Never met Frank Walton, but he sounds like a decent sort of bloke: 59, married with three adult children, has lived in Manurewa for 25 years, university lecturer, elder at the local Baptist church. Same goes for Graeme Tremain: retired dental surgeon, lives in Te Atatu, married with two daughters and four grandchildren.

The sort of men who used to be called "pillars of the community". There's another thing they used to say about gentlemen like these, and my late father: "We could do with more like them."

Frank and Graeme are two of our volunteer Voices of the Community, observing and commenting on Auckland's first regional elections. Not "local body elections", for reasons that are obvious to them, and to us.

Frank is concerned at the Government's willingness to override democratic principles to create the regional authority: "Having started down the pathway of giving decision-making power to a select few, how can we have confidence that people will genuinely have a say in the direction of their local communities?"

He asks his Manurewa - and all-Auckland - neighbours to carefully consider candidates for local boards. "We need people who are experienced in local community politics, who can stand up to the big players in the new Auckland Council and the Council-Controlled Organisations.

"We need people who care deeply about our communities, who will strongly advocate and fight for us, people who will not roll over easily and give in."

Graeme would agree. He told us this week: "There is a general dissatisfaction regarding the way the super-city has been bulldozed through by Government, coupled with a certain distrust of Rodney Hide who has been described as somewhat of a dictator.

"There is a realisation and acceptance that the super-city will happen and that Auckland will have to make the best of the situation. Of real concern is the speed with which the formation of the super-city has been pushed through and while the majority do not understand details of funding, or the lack of funding as far as the local boards are concerned, there is a general atmosphere of disquiet.

"People know of the proposed existence of local boards but are bemused as to their number, content and as to how they are to interact with the city council.

"I believe that they have every right to be so bemused ... There is genuine concern as to whether the local boards will be an effective voice for the community."

They have an articulate advocate in David Wilson. Director of AUT's Public Policy Institute, he is possibly the most well-informed, and well-placed, independent academic to comment on Auckland's new government. He told our chief reporter in a recent conversation that the architects have built a fundamental flaw into the blueprint. You may be surprised to read that he thinks it is the 20 councillors elected from wards, so read on:

"These ward councillors will be beholden to their local boards and influenced strongly by these local boards. These ward councillors themselves are in difficult positions. They will be voted in by their ward and will rightly think they are representing their ward interests.

"A lot of people have faith in the two levels of governance and it will all be rosy on the day. But here we have parochial and regional interests enmeshed. That's more a fatal flaw. Your ward councillors are likely to be one-term wonders."

Because, Dr Wilson propounds, ward councillors will pretty soon discover they will not be able to support what their local boards want. "These local boards are going to turn up to their meetings and the agenda will have been set for them by the [regional] council. It's going to be a pretty low-level agenda driven by the council.

"They will be told that signs are going up here and here, where a new park will be built and whether dogs are allowed. That is the way it is going to be and you have to wonder what influence they are going to have over the Auckland region and their local area."

Well, a ward councillor would always side with his / her local board, surely?

"Really? When there is conflict, who are you going to side with? You are going to side with whoever is paying you. What choice do you have?

"We have decided on a top-down structure of regional governance.

"Local boards might be deciding when the footpaths will be cleaned. But whether there's a motorway coming through a suburb or a prison built there or whether you get a sewerage plant, that's where you'll be looking to your ward councillor for influence.

"Let's run a scenario of putting a prison in Huapai. The local board says that's not a good idea. The ward councillor will be expected to do something about it - but what can they do?"

Maybe cut a deal with councillors from other wards to vote down the prison.

"Are they really going to do that? Would the Albany councillor support blocking a prison in Huapai when it could end up in their own ward instead?

"Meanwhile, the local board has been disempowered so all it can do is shout louder. All we've done here is set up a situation of potentially huge conflict."

Wait, there's more. Or, rather, less. The Auckland Transition Agency admits that people standing for the local boards won't even know what the budgets will be - in other words, what they're signing up to manage on our behalf.

The agency is still setting the "baseline budgets" for local boards, which the regional authority can increase but "not alter or reduce" before July 2012 when it sets its first long-term budget.

The Government - in the person of our local hero, Local Government Minister Rodney Hide - abdicated its responsibility to set the rules and regulations for the local boards, and gave the job to its puppets in the transition agency. The agency outlined - not concreted - roles and responsibilities in May.

Clevedon Community Board chairman Maurice Hinton told the Herald recently the information for prospective candidates was abysmal. There was no clear detail on the roles and functions or funding, and salaries of up to $37,100 would not match a near-fulltime position. Mike Cohen, the Devonport Community Board chairman who doubles as NZ Communities' Board leader, added it was critical local boards were given funding and staffing resources for each function or responsibility.

Stand up, Len Brown. In a campaign not notable for anything other than some contenders hoping we won't notice there's an election, so they can sleepwalk into power, the mayoral candidate issued a lengthy, strongly argued policy on local boards that goes further than the law requires.

Pledging to "ensure local identity is preserved and local voices are heard in the super-city", he commits to making the governance system work, that regulatory responsibilities are delegated to local boards and the boards are properly resourced to get on with their work.

He promises monthly meetings with local board chairs to review progress and discuss issues, a mayoral liaison person with local boards "so that local concerns are brought to my attention immediately", to rotate council meetings in current council chambers around the region, to encourage regional councillors to attend local board meetings, and to engage with advisory groups and interest groups.

(You can read the full statement, with Brown's specific promises, at: http://www.lenbrownformayor.co.nz/what-i-stand-for/voicing-local-issues/local-democracy-and-local-boards/)

Brown has made a positive contribution to the mayoral debate (insofar as there is a debate: perhaps it's astounding that someone has made any contribution at all). It sounds like it's what Frank and Graeme, and many of our other Voices across the region, wanted to hear. Of course, whether any of it comes to pass will depend on Brown being elected.

Meantime, those considering running, walking, hopping or even standing for the 149 local board positions across Auckland in less than two months remain blissfully ignorant, for lack of information from the Minister, the Government, or the shadowy agency in Newmarket that is pulling the strings.

There's an American cartoon from the 1920s that shows a signalman coolly surveying a number of trains colliding beneath his box. He says, "What a way to run a railroad." Sometimes rendered as "It's a hell of a way to run a railroad", the caption has become a catchphrase for organised chaos. This is a hell of a way to run an election.

- Ewan McDonald is the Editor of The Aucklander